4 ms·

Preventing selection is quite the useless and user antagonistic pattern...

by khalic 3mo ago

ChrisMarshallNY 3mo ago
Yeah. That was crazy. I've not encountered that, before.
- PhunkyPhil 3mo ago
  I knew I was a highlighter but reading that showed me how much my brain relies on spam click highlighting to keep my eyes on track. I should probably read more books.
  - khalic 3mo ago
    Fascinating! I wondered why some people did that
    - drivers99 3mo ago
      I do it one type of pointer or another for tracking my reading position continuously. I even highlighted some words in your comment while I read it. In a book, I typically put my finger (or the corner of my bookmark) under the 3 words or so I'm currently reading, or I'll put my thumb next to the line I'm currently reading. I don't usually think about it, but being on that web page and being prevented from highlighting made me back away quickly. If I'm not highlighting, then I'll also scroll so the top of the page marks where I am. (Whenever a page has a menu that changes relative position/size or pops up to cover the content when you change scrolling directions, that's an annoyance.) I think I use something to keep track of the current line like that more often than highlighting. Now that I think about it, if my mouse pointer were more noticeable, I assume I might simply point to where I am. Then again, the highlighted words are independent of the pointer, so it lets you have both. Why? Maybe my eyes move away from the page while I think about what I'm reading. Otherwise you'd have to keep a visual lock on your reading position continuously right? Or you'd have to scan the text to figure out where you left off.
    - robocat 3mo ago
      Longer HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45364329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45364329 Technical term "pointer assisted reading" (which I don't think includes the repetitive ADHD behaviours). My google-fu failed to find a good article about it. Appently the behaviours are best described within the comments of nerdy sites that have more mouse-users. Edit: obsessive "highlighters" please: what do you do on your mobile devices? What do you do when using a keyboard without a mouse? Do you do it with trackball devices or laptop trackpads?
mhb 3mo ago
Turning off Javascript helps.
loloquwowndueo 3mo ago
Disable JavaScript. A site abuses its privilege to execute code in your browser? Take the privilege away. Extensions like uBlock or no script can do this.
SAI_Peregrinus 3mo ago
It's unmaintained, and off-topic for this discussion, but the Luminous JS event blocker¹ was cool because it allowed blocking specific event handlers while still allowing JS to execute. ¹https://gbaptista.github.io/luminous/doc/en-US/ https://gbaptista.github.io/luminous/doc/en-US/

Preventing selection is quite the useless and user antagonistic pattern...

by khalic 3mo ago

Preventing selection is quite the useless and user antagonistic pattern...

ChrisMarshallNY 3mo ago

Yeah. That was crazy. I've not encountered that, before.

PhunkyPhil 3mo ago
I knew I was a highlighter but reading that showed me how much my brain relies on spam click highlighting to keep my eyes on track. I should probably read more books.
- khalic 3mo ago
  Fascinating! I wondered why some people did that
  - drivers99 3mo ago
    I do it one type of pointer or another for tracking my reading position continuously. I even highlighted some words in your comment while I read it. In a book, I typically put my finger (or the corner of my bookmark) under the 3 words or so I'm currently reading, or I'll put my thumb next to the line I'm currently reading. I don't usually think about it, but being on that web page and being prevented from highlighting made me back away quickly. If I'm not highlighting, then I'll also scroll so the top of the page marks where I am. (Whenever a page has a menu that changes relative position/size or pops up to cover the content when you change scrolling directions, that's an annoyance.) I think I use something to keep track of the current line like that more often than highlighting. Now that I think about it, if my mouse pointer were more noticeable, I assume I might simply point to where I am. Then again, the highlighted words are independent of the pointer, so it lets you have both. Why? Maybe my eyes move away from the page while I think about what I'm reading. Otherwise you'd have to keep a visual lock on your reading position continuously right? Or you'd have to scan the text to figure out where you left off.
  - robocat 3mo ago
    Longer HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45364329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45364329 Technical term "pointer assisted reading" (which I don't think includes the repetitive ADHD behaviours). My google-fu failed to find a good article about it. Appently the behaviours are best described within the comments of nerdy sites that have more mouse-users. Edit: obsessive "highlighters" please: what do you do on your mobile devices? What do you do when using a keyboard without a mouse? Do you do it with trackball devices or laptop trackpads?

mhb 3mo ago

Turning off Javascript helps.

loloquwowndueo 3mo ago

Disable JavaScript. A site abuses its privilege to execute code in your browser? Take the privilege away. Extensions like uBlock or no script can do this.

SAI_Peregrinus 3mo ago

It's unmaintained, and off-topic for this discussion, but the Luminous JS event blocker¹ was cool because it allowed blocking specific event handlers while still allowing JS to execute. ¹https://gbaptista.github.io/luminous/doc/en-US/ https://gbaptista.github.io/luminous/doc/en-US/